Resources For The Road: Recent Episodes
NEXT Trucking
With global logistics impacting almost every corner of society, NEXT Trucking’s newest podcast series, Resources for the Road, looks to uncover how technology can change the trucking industry and much more.
Driving for a living can take a physical toll on the body. Dr. Mark Manera, Founder & CEO of Supply Chain Fitness, saw this toll first-hand through many of his professional driver physical therapy clients. Dr. Manera decided to utilize his rehab and fitness knowledge to make a difference for those in the trucking industry.
The more Dr. Manera learned about the driving industry and his patients, the more he knew he could make a positive impact. He was shocked by some of the research and statistics on the health of an average driver. “The one that was really shocking to me, and the one that was something that said I need to do something about this was, I saw that as a group, truck drivers have a life expectancy sixteen years less than the average population,” Dr. Manera said.
The unique lifestyles of the individuals working in driving and supply chain need a specific program designed to meet their needs. “I tell drivers all the time, your health goes with you forever,” Dr. Manera said. “So, when we’re making these changes, we need to set it up from day one in a manner that you can do this for the rest of your life. It’s realistic, and we can see the compound effect of just showing up every day and getting those small wins.”
Supply Chain Fitness takes a proactive approach to the situation and works to make small changes in driver habits that build into an overall transformation in health and fitness rituals. “If we can find a way to meet drivers where they’re at and give them a way to live a healthier life out on the road, everyone’s going to win, and everyone’s bottom line is going to win,” Dr. Manera said.
Driving for a living can take a physical toll on the body. Dr. Mark Manera, Founder & CEO of Supply Chain Fitness, saw this toll first-hand through many of his professional driver physical therapy clients. Dr. Manera decided to utilize his rehab and fitness knowledge to make a difference for those in the trucking industry.
The more Dr. Manera learned about the driving industry and his patients, the more he knew he could make a positive impact. He was shocked by some of the research and statistics on the health of an average driver. “The one that was really shocking to me, and the one that was something that said I need to do something about this was, I saw that as a group, truck drivers have a life expectancy sixteen years less than the average population,” Dr. Manera said.
The unique lifestyles of the individuals working in driving and supply chain need a specific program designed to meet their needs. “I tell drivers all the time, your health goes with you forever,” Dr. Manera said. “So, when we’re making these changes, we need to set it up from day one in a manner that you can do this for the rest of your life. It’s realistic, and we can see the compound effect of just showing up every day and getting those small wins.”
Supply Chain Fitness takes a proactive approach to the situation and works to make small changes in driver habits that build into an overall transformation in health and fitness rituals. “If we can find a way to meet drivers where they’re at and give them a way to live a healthier life out on the road, everyone’s going to win, and everyone’s bottom line is going to win,” Dr. Manera said.
“I hope you aren’t watching this while driving,” said Robert Brown, Chief Strategy Officer at Spartan Radar. Spartan Radar is a California-based company started by brilliant minds who built radar systems and planes in the Air Force. “They brought their skills to the automotive industry,” said Brown. Spartan’s work focuses on improving driver assistance systems - systems that sometimes give false alarms and beep when they shouldn’t.
Brown’s background includes work in the automated trucking industry. He enjoys what he does because it is an essential part of everyday life and there are many advantages. While new technology in trucking would have seemed like science fiction ten years ago, such as zero-emission vehicles, battery electric vehicles, hydrogen-run vehicles, autonomous vehicles, and drone delivery, it’s an incredible opportunity right now. “Sounds like an exciting time,” said Gabrielle Bejarano, the podcast host.
There’s a lot of buzz around autonomous vehicles. “The most important thing is to educate on what is going on. If you’re nervous about autonomous trucks, learn about them. There are so many great resources out there,” Brown suggested. There is no autonomous truck at scale. The race is to go to market. Even once these vehicles are released, the primary use for autonomous trucks will be for long-haul routes.
“It can’t do the inner-city local pickup and delivery,” said Brown. The journey would start with a manually driven truck, shift to an autonomously driven truck, and again to a manually operated truck for local delivery. With that in mind, the process opens up two trucking jobs on either side of the long-haul journey.
Are autonomous trucks the solution? Connect with Brown on LinkedIn to learn more about what’s NEXT for the industry.
Matt Schrap, CEO of Harbor Trucking Association, doesn’t drive trucks for a living, but he knows all the regulations and rules of the road that govern them. The Harbor Trucking Association is a coalition of intermodal carriers serving America’s West Coast Ports, including Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle, and Tacoma. Schrap spent the better part of his career involved with government regulatory issues affecting the trucking industry, so he knows the ins and outs of this business.
Trucking in port environments is not the same experience as long-haul trucking. Truckers go home every night; they are not on the road for days at a time. "Here, we're concentrated solely on twelve containerized marine terminals in the ports of LA and Long Beach. We take that cargo to local distribution centers near Rancho Dominguez, Compton, and Wilmington, all the way out to some of the Inland Empire spots like San Bernadino, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, and Fontana," Schrap said.
Port trucking was always challenging, but with more and more products produced overseas, the logistical impact for today’s port truckers raises the bar. “LA/Long Beach is the largest gateway port complex in the country,” Schrap said. “Last year, they handled over twenty million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units,) which is the most ever by any port in the Western hemisphere. So, it’s not that necessarily things have changed, but we’ve seen a lot more volume come through.”
One challenge facing port truckers that may prove difficult to overcome is the recent supreme court ruling that upholds the California AB5 law of 2019, which could impact two-thirds of California’s port truckers. The law, designed to protect independent contractors, contains specific regulations that make it difficult for the trucking industry to hire independent truckers in the future. The implementation of this law was on hold while the case played out in the courts. With the Supreme Court cementing California’s law, the trucking industry must find ways to comply to keep activity at the ports running smooth.
Choosing the right carrier for transporting goods can be tricky, but it is now a much easier task thanks to Carrier Assure, a new software platform created by CEO Cassandra Gaines. Using her experience as a “trucking attorney” in the transportation industry, Gaines created Carrier Assure to provide shippers and brokers with a new and improved way to choose who is best for transporting their goods.
“[W]hat this software does is it provides shipper, and the brokers, a score,” Gaines says. Acting much like a credit score, the software allows shippers and brokers to look over all of the data—including tracking data—and determine whether the carrier is appropriate for the shipment before selecting one.
While the platform exists to let shippers and brokers see the scores of carriers, Gaines wants carriers to do the same with shippers and brokers in the future. “I want it to be a credit score for the entire industry,” Gaines says. “So, one day…[carriers] will have a score on brokers and shippers.”
Gaines also provided useful advice to carriers regarding “double brokering,” which happens when the DOT and MC number changes. Since the DOT and MC number cannot change during shipment, this is something that tends to happen accidentally. “[I]f it happens and the customer finds out, they will report you to all the softwares—including mine—and you will lose so much business.”
Carrier Assure’s website provides more information regarding double brokering in the “Report Carriers” FAQ page. She additionally recommended that carriers sign up for a one-week trial on the website so they can see their and others’ scores.
When it comes to global supply chain issues, there is no greater source than FreightWaves, the largest media and market-level data provider in the logistics and supply-chain industry. Tyler Kern welcomed Craig Fuller, CEO & Founder of FreightWaves, to Resources for the Road for a brain-picking session on what’s happening in logistics today, and ‘spoiler alert,’ there’s a lot happening.
To understand the challenges in logistics today, Fuller said it’s essential to look at what occurred before the pandemic during what the industry coined as the trucker bloodbath. Due to massive expansion, trucking capacity outweighed demand for a couple of years before 2020, “The market slowed down just enough to cause a situation where trucking spot rates dropped significantly; demand drooped significantly to where the total number of trucks in the market, and companies with marginal balance sheets and unit economics could not survive,” Fuller said.
These factors led to a lot of trucking companies going bankrupt in 2019. Boom and bust cycles occur more often than most people recognize, according to Fuller, and these cycles tend to ebb and flow every three years. Today, the market is robust, and many new trucking companies are entering the mix, “Many of those carriers will do quite well, but some of those carriers, particularly those that went beyond a single owner-operator entering the market, but maybe they added 50-100 trucks, are probably at the greatest risk,” Fuller said, “They have gone well above their ability to run a company at scale and run one well.”
Fuller mentioned the trucking market is already beginning to soften, even though the warmer months typically bring more volume. So far, in 2022, that hasn’t been the case, but there will be a lot of watchful eyes on the situation over the next few months.
The importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions continues to make headline news. One of the easiest ways to do this is by transitioning traditional vehicles to all-electric vehicles and one industry that has the ability to make a significant impact in a short period of time is commercial transportation vehicles that operate on diesel fuel.
Tyler Kern, podcast host of Resources for the Road, sat down with Esther M. Santos, Director of North America Sales at Xos, Inc., to discuss the EV solutions available to those who manage diesel-fueled transportation fleets.
Since 2018, Xos trucks have been providing “OEM class 5 through Class 8 battery electric vehicles. We design and build the vehicles. We also design and build our power trains. We do charging infrastructure and fleet management” with a focus on trucks that complete 200 miles or less per/day, said Santos.
She also highlighted that Xos is “one of the few battery-electric commercial OEMs with vehicles on the road right now.”
Xos clients include Lumis, Unifirst, Southern Glacier’s Wine and Spirits, and FedEx ground operators, “We are truly obsessed with making fleets more efficient for our customers. We believe we’re helping transform a segment of the transportation industry that’s actually going to have the biggest impact in reducing greenhouse emissions,” stated Santos.
However, the impact of EVs goes beyond fleets and includes regular cars despite the common misconception that EVs are too expensive or don’t apply to the current environment. There are many initiatives working to make everyone go electric by 2030. It’s not a matter of if it’s going to happen but when.
Thinking about transitioning a diesel fleet to electric should be something that people are talk about today, not two or five years from now. This applies to every fleet-operated business whether they have five, fifty or hundreds of vehicles as part of their operational landscape.
With global logistics a hot topic now more than ever, Corey Riggins of NEXT Trucking sits down with host Tyler Kern to talk about NEXT Trucking’s new podcast series and how technology can change the trucking industry.
What is NEXT Trucking? NEXT is a technology platform that helps connect drivers with customers while helping carriers leverage the technology to assist in deliveries. Riggins explained the mission of the company, “We want to focus on the things that matter, keeping the wheels turning.”
By bundling loads onto the app, this allows the driver to focus on the delivery by clicking and going. “We want to empower the carriers to maximize their productivity,” said Riggins. On joining NEXT, Riggins said, “What excited me most was the scrappiness of the company.” NEXT has built from the ground up and seen astute growth.
While the company invests heavily in technology to continue maximizing the benefits, NEXT also invests in their operations by providing, “industry people,” those of which, “know the space,” said Riggins.
By hiring industry professionals, NEXT Trucking is able to, “bring that sense of expertise that I think a lot of other companies overlook or take for granted,” said Riggins. Knowing the industry and knowing the audience allows NEXT not to lose sight of its goals.
The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and the disruption it caused pushed the “inefficiencies” in the industry to the forefront. Riggins stated the industry is, “ripe for change,” which is possible by, “listening to our people” and acknowledging the importance of carriers, “Drivers are the salt of the Earth.”
This podcast will continue to be a source of information about the trucking and logistics industry for customers, drivers, and outsiders. Tune in to Resources for the Road podcast and visit https://www.nexttrucking.com/ to learn more.